Freight oar



(No ModeL) 2 Sheets-Shee1: 1. H. V. LUCAS.

FREIGHT GAR.

No. 378,602. Patented Feb. 28, 1888.

. ATTEST. INVEN OR mmw wflflorney (No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

H. V. LUCAS.

FREIGHT GAR.

No. 378,602. v Patented Feb. 28, 1888;

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By (901 Differ-712% rrn TATES Finch.

PATENT HENRY V. LUCAS, OF ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA, ASSIG-NOR TO LOUISELUCAS, OF SAME PLACE.

FREIGHT CAR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 378,602, dated February28, 1888.

Application filed September 17, 1887. Serial No. 249,940. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY V. Lucas, formerly of St. Louis, Missouri, nowofSt. Paul, Minnesota, have made a new and useful Im- 5 provement inFreight-Oars, of which the following is a full, clear, and exactdescription.

The improvement under consideration relates more especially to thatclass of railway freight-cars termed graincars, or which can IO beadapted to be used asgrain-cars; andit consists, rather, in a novel anduseful means for discharging the grain from the car, substantially asrepresented in the annexed drawings, making part of this specification,and exhibit- [5 ing the mostdesirable mode of carrying out theimprovement, in Which- Figure 1 is a view in perspective of a car inwhichtheimprovementisembodied. Portions of the car not essential to anunderstanding of the improvement are not included in the View, and aportion of one of the grain doors is broken away to exhibit the interiorconstruction. Fig. 2 is a plan of the central portion of the car-floor.Fig. 3 is a vertical transverse section on the line 3 3 of Fig. 2. Fig.4 is a vertical longitudinal section on the line 4 at of Fig. 2; andFig. 5 is a detail, being a view in perspective, from the interior ofthe car, of one of the grain-car journals and its bearing.

The same letters of reference denote the same parts.

The car A, otherwise than as modified by the improvement, is of thecustomary form.

B represents the usual door for closing the doorway I).

represents a chute, whose inner end, 0, opens upward into the interiorof the car, and which leads thence downward and outward to or toward theside of the car beneath the carbody at. There is one of these chutes ateach side of the car. The inlet 0 to the chute is adapted to be closedby means of a slide, D, which works horizontally and transversely in thecar beneath thefiooringEand abovetheinlet to the chute. Theslideisprovided with one or more arms, (Z, which extend through suitablechannels in the floor of the car outward to the side of the car, and sothat when the car door 13 is opened, as in Fig. 1, the arms can be 50reached and the slide D thereby be drawn out to bring its opening (1into coincidence with the chute-inlet c and the flooring-opening c. Thisposition of the slide is shown at the left hand side of Fig. 3. Thegrain within the car can then flow therefrom into the chute, and 5 5thence be discharged therefrom as desired. The slide D at the oppositeside-namely, the right-hand side-of the car, Fig. 3, is shown pushedinward, so as to close the inlet into the chute, and thus prevent thegrain from escaping in that direction. When theslide is in thelast-named position, it can be secured by closing the door B, which thencomes without and sufficiently close to the outer end of the slidearms dto prevent the slide from moving outward. A suitable stop (not shown)prevents the slide from being moved inward too far.

An additional feature of the improvement is the grain door F. Thislast-named door occupies, when the car is loaded with grain, the sameposition as that of the ordinary graindoor. It, however, differs fromthose hitherto in use in being provided with journalsf, Fig.

5, at the lower end of the door, at each side thereof,which engageandareadapted to berotatedin bearingsf in or upon the posts b at the sides,respectively, of the doorway b. When the car is loaded with grain,thegraindoor is upturned in its bearings,as shown in the full linesin Figs.1, 8, and the unloading ofthe car is initiated by drawing the slide Doutward and allowing the grain to drop through the chute, and after thegrain has been discharged from the car in the immediate vicinity of thechute that grain remaining in the car can be transferred. from its 8 5ends to its center and be delivered into the chute.

A special advantage derived from the inn provement is that the grain.can be unloaded without practically any waste whatever, whereas when acar is unloaded in the ordinary way waste is apt to occur. After the caris unloaded, the grain-doors can be turned inward and downward into theinterior ofthc car-body, as indicated by the broken lines in Fig. 3, and5 so as to lieflatin a recess, a and so as to bring the (then) upperside of the grain-doors flush with the surface of the surroundingear-floor.

The grain-doorsin practice are made of sheet metal, and when they areturned downward, Ico

as just described, they constitute a very durable protection for themost used portion of the car floor-namely, the portion between the doorsof the cars, and which, as cars have heretofore been made, wears awaymuch faster than the remaining portions.

The grain-door, by making the bearings f in the form of slots,substantially as shown, can be lifted entirely out of its position inthe doorway b and removed, if desired. Thecatch f*, Fig. 3, is used tosecure the grain-door in its upright position. A crossbar, f may be usedto brace the door when the car is loaded.

By means of the present improvement not only is grain saved thathitherto has been liable to be wasted, but also time and labor areeconomized in the unloading of the car.

1. The car-body having the chute leading downward through the bottom ofthe car-body and outward to or toward the side of the car, and at itsupper end provided with a slide, as and for the purpose described.

2. The combination of the car -body, the chute, and the slide providedwith arms, said slide working horizontally beneath the flooring andabove the inlet to the chute, substantially as described.

3. The combination of the car-body, the chute, the slide provided withthe arms and working beneath the flooring and above the chute-inlet, andthe journaled car-door, substantially as described.

4. The journaled grain-door, combined with the catch J, as and for thepurpose described.

5. The combination of the car-body, the

chute, the slide, the recessed car-floor, and the journaled grain door,substantially as described.

FRANK M. REED, J NO. L. WHELAN.

